The Persistence of High Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa

A Comment

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4122015
AutoresCheikh Mbacke (0000-0002-9015-2539, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen43
NúmeroS1
Páginas330-337
Fecha de publicación2017-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPopulation and Development Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/padr.12052
OpenAlexW2672480036
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas8

The US National Academy of Sciences Panel on the Population Dynamics of Sub-Saharan Africa met for the first time in February 1990 in Washington, DC to launch a major initiative aimed at deepening understanding of demographic change in the subcontinent.The initiative produced a total seven volumes, including a set of reports providing an in-depth analysis of various aspects of African socioeconomic and demographic trends and two countryspecific reports.These showed that, outside of South Africa where the transition was well established, fertility remained very high (generally above 6 children per woman) in much of the continent but that unquestionable signs of country-level decline were visible in a few countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe.My review of the papers included in the main report, Demographic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (Foote, Hill, and Martin 1993), argued that high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was not a peculiar expression of African cultures but a rational response to the continent's specific circumstances and that changes in those circumstances could usher in a new era (Mbacké 1994).Twenty-five years later, in July 2015 and at the same location, the Workshop on Recent Trends in Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was held to take stock of the same topic, at a time when the continent's leaders have started paying serious attention to fertility as a key factor in economic development.Armed with richer and better-quality data than was available in the early 1990s, when Africa's fertility transition was just starting, the papers presented at the workshop-many of which appear in revised form in this volume-provide a rich picture of the changes that occurred over the quarter-century and of the factors behind them.The papers also discuss the policy implications and the potential for harnessing a demographic dividend in support of the continent's development.This commentary will focus on the "African exceptionalism" that is a thread throughout a number of the chapters in this volume.As John Bongaarts puts it, "the pronatalist nature of African societies implies a resistance to fertility decline that is absent or weaker in non-African countries."And according to John Casterline and

Development economics · Economics · Fertility · Geography · Persistence (discontinuity · Population · Sociology · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Geology · Global Maternal and Child Health · Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management